Parade for Richard III

Parade for Richard III

Crowds turned out to watch King Richard III's coffin containing his remains as it was paraded through Leicester nearly 530 years after he was slain on a nearby battlefield.

Parade for Richard III

A crown sits on the coffin of King Richard III as it stands in Leicester Cathedral.

Yesterday 35,000 people gathered to watch the procession of Richard III’s coffin (containing his remains) through Leicestershire on its way to the cathedral where they will be reburied.

The body of Richard III, who died at the battle of Bosworth in 1485, was found under a car park in 2012. He was slain on a battlefield near the city on 22 August 1485 aged 32, nearly 530 years ago.

Many threw white roses onto the coffin, emblematic of the symbol of the Yorkist house whose principal champion he became during the War of the Roses, which ended with his defeat. It was a contrast to when his body was last paraded through the city as naked corpse strewn across the back of a horse, following his defeat at Bosworth, and exposed to several days of public abuse.